JAM Directors

If you have any issues or questions about your JAM Tournament, your first point of contact should be your team manager or coach, followed by your JAM Tournament Director (see below). Or you may also contact your association’s Snowbelt Rep. Issues or concerns should not be channeled to Sectional or National USA Hockey administration under any circumstances — if for some reason they need to be involved, the Snowbelt President will handle that contact.

FAQ

Q: When will the 2018 JAM be held?
A: This season, the Snowbelt JAM tournament dates at all levels are March 2-4, 2018.Each season, these dates are determined at the August Snowbelt Board meeting. In general, JAM Tournaments are held during a single weekend from Friday through Sunday in late February or early March. In rare unavoidable occasions, a particular location may need to begin their tournament on a Thursday night.

Q: When do we find out which location our JAM will be hosted at?
A: In order to create competitive JAM tournaments, the Snowbelt Board thoroughly discusses each tournament at the February board meeting, which is held less than a week after the end of the season. At the conclusion of that board meeting, your Snowbelt Reps will know which tournament all teams will play in, and which team is hosting each tournament. (Exact rinks/locations will not be known until the actual schedule is finalized.)

Q: When do we find out the schedule and rinks our team will play in for our JAM?
A: The Snowbelt Scheduler will work with the hosting association Reps and JAM Directors to determine the final schedule for each tournament. All JAM tournaments should have the full schedule (including teams, dates, times, and rinks) posted once they are finalized, usually starting on Monday following the February board meeting. Some JAM schedules may take longer to be finalized.

Q: There isn’t very much time between the time we find out our JAM schedule and the time of the JAM itself. We need more time to plan the trip and schedule work vacations and to figure out our travel/hotel plans.
A: Unfortunately, this is true. The only way for us to continue to hold truly competitive JAM tournaments is to consider each team’s performance throughout the entire season (see above). Within a week of the end of the regular season games, we have all the JAM tournaments set and scheduled. This is no minor feat! In 2014 we adjusted the schedule to provide families with an extra week to prepare. We realize the notice is still relatively short, but we hope this works out better for your planning process while still keeping JAMs as competitive as possible.

Q: In order to make it to our first JAM game, my child would have to miss part of his/her school day. Why can’t we play the tournament outside of school hours?
A: In a perfect world no child would miss school for a JAM game. We have a set “ideal schedule” that doesn’t have any team playing earlier than 4:00 or 5:00 pm on Fridays. Unfortunately, many JAMs do not have full use of their ice for the entire weekend or are hosting multiple tournaments and therefore cannot follow the ideal schedule. When determining JAM schedules we do our best to avoid or minimize school conflicts by scheduling games for as late as possible on Friday. That said, some tournaments have to start on Friday morning or early afternoon and in some rare cases, Thursday evening.

Q: Why is it called the John Abbott Memorial (JAM) Tournament?
A: John O. Abbott was a past President of the Snowbelt league. A native of Skaneateles, he had also served as President of Skaneateles’ youth hockey association. John passed away in 1995. It was decided to name the end-of-season Snowbelt tournament in his honor.